This page shows specific network transmissions that implement 180's double-popup
cookie-stuffing, targeting a request for freshpair.com made just after midnight
(Eastern) on July 27, 2004. See also a video (WMV
format, view in full-screen mode, warning: >900KB) confirming what took
place, including showing my Cookies folder before and after receiving the 180solutions
popup. The thumbnail at right shows the final on-screen display -- the tgw.com
site, covered in part by the double popup that reached tgw.com through an affiliate
link.
In this example, I sought to document how 180 (and its advertisers) can overwrite
cookies set by other affiliates. My testing proceeded in the following way:
Other Targeted
Merchants: Double and Silent
Popups
I cleared my cookies, such that any cookies set on my PC were set in the
course of the testing shown in my video.
I browsed to galacticgalaxy.com, an ordinary affiliate site that links to
freshpair.com via an affiliate link. I clicked through that affiliate link,
yielding the communications shown in HTTP Transaction 1
(with original affiliate link shown in red highlighting) (including setting
cookies, as shown in blue highlighting, noting a "64qw5" cookie).
My browser rendered the freshpair.com site. (Network logs omitted for brevity.)
Immediately, without any clicks on my part, Zango (installed on my PC) performed
the communication shown in HTTP Transaction 2. In particular,
Zango asked 180solutions' web servers for an ad to be shown -- sending the
freshpair.com trigger (as shown in yellow highlighting), and receiving an
affiliate link to qksrv.net in response (purple highlighting).
In HTTP Transaction 3, Zango loaded the specified affiliate
link in a new window. That link in turn set Commission Junction cookies (blue
highlighting, noting a "2bcfb") cookie).
Observing my cookies (cookie listing), I see that at the
end of the events described above, my qksrv.net and commission-junction.com
cookies included references to the "2bcfb" and other values set
by the 180 affiliate link in Transaction 3 (blue highlighting). However, I
see no surviving reference to the "64qw5" cookie set during the
click from the original galacticgalaxy.com page.
Consistent with the rest of my site, the network logs below omit my DUID (my
unique 180solutions user ID number). In place of the actual affiliate ID number
used by the 180 pop-up, the logs use the phrase "[180solutions affiliate
ID]".
In my testing of July 27, 2004, freshpair.com is but one of many merchants
that remain targeted by 180solutions double popups. Some targeted merchants
(like freshpair.com) use Commission Junction; others use LinkShare; others use
other networks, or run in-house affiliate programs. Some double popups (like
this one) entail 180solutions sending users directly to affiliate links via
no other intermediaries; others first route users through one or more additional
redirect servers.
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Server: Resin/2.1.13
P3P: policyref="http://www.qksrv.net/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="ALL BUS
LEG DSP COR ADM CUR DEV PSA OUR NAV INT"
Cache-control: no-cache
Pragma: max-age=0
Location: http://www.commission-junction.com/track/track.dll?AID=10299173&PID=1419550&UID1811=arxjpg5-509310467-1090902296816-vp&CBID=t8u6i0vq&SID=freshpair_26_21_25
<html>
<head><meta http-equiv="redirect" content="http://www.commission-junction.com/track/track.dll?AID=10299173&PID=1419550&UID1811=arxjpg5-509310467-1090902296816-vp&CBID=t8u6i0vq&SID=freshpair_26_21_25"></head>
<body>The URL has moved <a href="http://www.commission-junction.com/track/track.dll?AID=10299173&PID=1419550&UID1811=arxjpg5-509310467-1090902296816-vp&CBID=t8u6i0vq&SID=freshpair_26_21_25">here</a></body></html>
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Server: Resin/2.1.13
P3P: policyref="http://www.qksrv.net/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="ALL BUS
LEG DSP COR ADM CUR DEV PSA OUR NAV INT"
Cache-control: no-cache
Pragma: max-age=0
Location: http://www.freshpair.com/
Set-Cookie: S=arxjpg5-509310467-1090902296816-vp; domain=.commission-junction.com;
path=/; expires=Sun, 26-Jul-2009 04:25:13 GMT
Set-Cookie: QKINFO=fr58-64qw5-ufby-freshpair_26_21_25-120-t8u6i0vq-; domain=.commission-junction.com;
path=/; expires=Sun, 26-Jul-2009 04:25:13 GMT
Set-Cookie: LCLK=cjo!fr58-t8u6i0vq; domain=.commission-junction.com; path=/;
expires=Sun, 26-Jul-2009 04:25:13 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 169
Connection: close
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 04:25:13 GMT
<html>
<head><meta http-equiv="redirect" content="http://www.freshpair.com/"></head>
<body>The URL has moved <a href="http://www.freshpair.com/">here</a></body></html>
GET /showme.aspx?keyword=.freshpair.com+freshpair.com&did=762&ver=5.11&duid=531byhiprtvdgvadrfmfcgtxxyrjmg
&partner_id=183723514&product_id=762&browser_ok=y&rnd=14&basename=zango
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<meta name="vs_targetSchema" content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5">
</HEAD>
<body>
<SPAN class="957085619-06032003"><FONT face="Arial"
color="#ff0000" size="5">Thank you
for your patience. You will be redirected to your destination site
in a
few seconds.</FONT></SPAN>
</body>
</HTML>
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Server: Resin/2.1.13
P3P: policyref="http://www.qksrv.net/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="ALL BUS
LEG DSP COR ADM CUR DEV PSA OUR NAV INT"
Cache-control: no-cache
Pragma: max-age=0
Location: http://www.commission-junction.com/track/track.dll?AID=3888551&PID=[180solutions affiliate ID]&UID1811=arxjpg5-509310467-1090902296816-vp&CBID=hb5i1xq
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Server: Resin/2.1.13
P3P: policyref="http://www.qksrv.net/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="ALL BUS
LEG DSP COR ADM CUR DEV PSA OUR NAV INT"
Cache-control: no-cache
Pragma: max-age=0
Location: http://www.freshpair.com/
Set-Cookie: QKINFO=fr58-2bcfb-m7rv-NA-120-hb5i1xq-; domain=.commission-junction.com;
path=/; expires=Sun, 26-Jul-2009 04:25:19 GMT
Set-Cookie: LCLK=cjo!fr58-hb5i1xq; domain=.commission-junction.com; path=/;
expires=Sun, 26-Jul-2009 04:25:19 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 169
Connection: close
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 04:25:19 GMT
<html>
<head><meta http-equiv="redirect" content="http://www.freshpair.com/"></head>
<body>The URL has moved <a href="http://www.freshpair.com/">here</a></body></html>
As
discussed in Affiliate Code Replacement via Popup "Double"
Windows within The Effect of 180solutions on Affiliate Commissions
and Merchants, 180 has implemented a system that can set affiliate tracking
codes by a showing user a duplicate copy of a merchant's site. These popups
set affiliate codes that, in the ordinary course of events, cause 180 to be
paid commissions otherwise payable to other affiliates, and cause 180 to be
paid commissions even if no commissions would otherwise be paid. For a listing
of affected merchants (as of tests of June 2004), see merchants
targeted with double windows. See also merchants
I previously found to be targeted with silent cookie-stuffing.